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Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins
Product Description
▼▲Product Information
▼▲Title: Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins By: Tucker S. Ferda Format: Hardcover Number of Pages: 560 Vendor: Eerdmans Publication Date: 2024 | Dimensions: 9.00 X 6.00 (inches) Weight: 1 pound 15 ounces ISBN: 080287990X ISBN-13: 9780802879905 Stock No: WW879905 |
Publisher's Description
▼▲Most historical Jesus scholars take for granted that Jesuss second coming was invented by his zealous early followers. In Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker S. Ferda challenges this critical consensus. Using innovative methodology, Ferda works backward through reception history to Paul and the Gospels to argue that the hope for the second coming originated in Jesuss own grappling with the prospect of death and his conviction that the kingdom was near; he expected a return that would coincide with the final judgment and the end of the age within the space of a generation.
Ferda also makes a major contribution to the reception history of the Bible, shedding light on how Christians distinguished their faith from Judaism by deriding "Jewish messianism" as earthly minded and militaristic. In the early modern period, critics found an expedient way to distance Jesus from this caricature of "Jewish messianism": they pinned the expectation for the second coming on Jesuss early followers. A new appreciation for the diversity of Judaism and messianism in the Second Temple period makes possible a fresh reconstruction of Jesus.
Bold and historically astute, Jesus and His Promised Second Coming breathes new life into a long-stagnant conversation. It also offers readers fresh insight into the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Students and scholars of the New Testament will need to read and engage with Ferdas provocative argument.
Author Bio
▼▲Tucker S. Ferda is associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His research interests include the Gospels, the historical Jesus, the history of New Testament research, Second Temple Judaism, eschatology, and hermeneutics. His other publications include the book Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis.
Editorial Reviews
▼▲from the foreword by Dale C. Allison Jr.
"This work is sure to set the cat among the pigeons about a long-time consensus among students of the historical Jesus: Jesus did not expect his Second Coming; that expectation was, rather, an invention of the early church. Ferda argues to the contrary that an expectation of end-time return is in line with the rest of Jesuss eschatology and that scholarly skepticism about it reflects post-Enlightenment prejudice rather than sound historical method. He makes his case well, both in analyzing scholars presuppositions and arguments and in mining ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Whether or not they end up agreeing, subsequent historians will not be able to ignore this challenging counter-thesis."
Joel Marcus, professor emeritus of New Testament and Christian origins, Duke Divinity School
"The New Testament and its early readers expected Jesus to return from heaven and attributed this expectation to Jesus himself. Historians of Jesus, howevereven before the supposed eighteenth-century beginnings of Jesus historiographyare largely unable or unwilling to discuss this expectation as an aspect of Jesuss self-understanding. Ferda charts an intrepid course through this tension that leads the way to understanding not just Christian origins and eschatology but also the man from Nazareth and his receptions. I needed to read this book."
Rafael Rodríguez, professor of New Testament, Johnson University
"Historical Jesus research is such a rats nest that only a few exceptional mindsone thinks, for instance, of E. P. Sanders, Paula Fredriksen, and Dale Allisonseem competent to pull it off. With this fascinating book, Tucker Ferda adds his name to this distinguished company. Ferda makes a powerful case that the idea of the second coming plausibly goes back to Jesuss own meditatio mortis, and he challenges all comers to try to prove otherwise. A book not to be trifled with."
Matthew V. Novenson, Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary
"In this fascinating book, Tucker Ferda tackles an old question in historical Jesus research from a fresh perspective. Contrary to common views, he relates the expectation of Jesuss second coming not to later interpretation, but to Jesus himself. In a thorough and erudite study of the history of reception, Ferda shows that the dissociation of Jesuss second coming from his own teaching derives from an anti-Jewish prejudice that goes back as far as the ancient Adversus Iudaeos tractates. This book challenges a consensus in Jesus scholarship with groundbreaking observations and arguments. It deserves a firm place in future discussions on the subject."
Jens Schröter, professor of New Testament and ancient Christian apocrypha, Humboldt University of Berlin
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